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Why business must accept a greater sense of responsibility for the whole

It’s corporate social responsibility focus week on Bdaily. Here, Brian Bacon, chairman and founder of Oxford Leadership academy, assesses the importance of CSR to business.

Industrial societies are in search of a ‘new purpose’ and CSR is part of the emerging new story for business leaders.

Global mega challenges such as environmental sustainability, aging population, youth unemployment, debt addiction and the increasing marginalisation of people & culture, have caused big-picture thought leaders to question the validity of ‘exponential economic growth’ as either a meaningful purpose or a viable option for a modern society. In recent years we have suffered through several examples of global system failure, including the global economic crisis.

Increasingly suspicious of big business, consumers and legislators alike have repudiated the old idea that the business of business is (only) business. There is increasing recognition that business, now the most powerful force influencing human civilisation, must accept a greater sense of responsibility for the whole. Companies that don’t ‘get-it’ get punished by consumers, the media and by law.

Those that embrace it authentically usually benefit from increased customer loyalty, improved employee engagement, better talent attraction & retention and an improved bottom line.

Consequently, most business leaders today probably do acknowledge (perhaps hesitantly) some sort of responsibility for stewardship for the earth and human society, yet most struggle with how best to act on this in a meaningful way. Beyond the rhetoric, for the sustainability movement to continue, CSR practices have to be made easier for every business to adopt, not just the early adopters and a zealous minority. Any likelihood of long term viability of the economy, our communities and the environment all hinge on our ability to make sustainable practices mainstream.

Fortunately, once a company does fully understand CSR, they invariably find that sustainable practices make very good bottom-line sense.

However, incremental steps towards sustainability do not address a more fundamental problem, which is the need for whole-system change. Beyond the check-lists and mission statements the real question for modern industrial society leaders is one of meaning, as articulated by Willis Harman in his book Global Mind Change, “what is the central purpose of highly industrialised societies when it no longer makes sense for that central purpose to be exponential growth of economic production, because, in the long run, that does not lead to a viable future?”

This question provokes a conversation which could lead to the emergence of a new story for our modern civilisation. Business leaders need to step into the conversation fully and CSR is a pretty good topic with which to start.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Oxford Leadership Academy .